Des Moines Register
Vulture Midwest?
Facebook's fourth gigantic data center will be in Iowa, a state already favored by major infrastructure operators due to its renewable utility options. The new data center in Altoona, Iowa, will be the company's fourth dedicated bit barn, along with facilities in Prineville, Oregon; Forest City, North Carolina; and Luleå, …
I like the irony of bulding a datacenter - a grabbag of some of the most sophisticated tech on the planet - right in the middle of a bunch of rubes who believe a bearded old white guy runs the universe and that the earth is only 6000 years old ..
I can't get these images of hominids and monoliths out of my head ..
Wrong culture - it is not Arkansas, in the evangelical Bible belt. See Iowa Wikipedia - biggest religious groups Lutherans and Catholics, low populations of Hispanics and other minorities. Manufacturing 21% of GDP, 6.6% unemployment, state credit rating AAA. In other words, think of a really big suburb.
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http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2004/11/State-By-State-Percentage-Of-White-Evangelicals-Catholics-And-Black-Protestants.aspx
Similar profile to Colorado and Michigan - 25% Evangelical, 23% Catholic - and with a high Lutheran population in the bulk, from Northern European populations not noted for being demonstrative on religion.
Night and day compared to the *real* Bible-belt state in which I live.
Another cultural difference for-instance (Gays):
> A poll conducted in October, 2012, found that 49 percent of Iowa voters were in favor of gay marriage, up
> from 41 percent just a year earlier.
Here in Virginia, we have an attorney general who thinks he can score political capital defending an anti-sodomy law.
A big difference between the Midwest "Can't we get along" culture and the Southern "My Bible sez"
[ from someone who is familiar with both]